For a little while, the Apple press fell over itself to analyze the import of a screw that was reportedly going to lock customers and repairers out of the next iPhone forever. The source of the story has now ‘fessed up that to the hoax that set the wires a-buzz.
Swedish design house Day4 has posted its account of events here. …

COMMENTS

Punked fanbois? Not really.

At least from the other comment thread I noticed far more Apple haters apparently getting punked than any fanbois. Which isn't surprising, you'd have to be a natural dimwit - or paid to pretend being one - to believe this rumour.

Re: Punked fanbois? Not really.

I must be a dimwit cause I can see Apple using custom screws to lock people out. It's not like Apple has any objections to people opening their iThingy up to take a quick look or to mod it or anything.

Re: Punked fanbois? Not really.

Re: Punked fanbois? Not really.

How on earth can you "mod" an iPhone PCB though? it's all tiny SMD circuitry and there's very little you could do except maybe try to increase the memory size but really, is it worth burning £500 to try to mod it? Just pay for a large GB version in the first place.

Obvious fake

Re: Punked fanbois? Not really.

The Apple screws aren't that "custom", they just aren't ordinary screw heads. I believe that they do this so that they can apply more torque when assembling them, and making them more resilient. I don't think they have any tamper-proof features apart from obscurity, they don't have break-away heads, they aren't one-way screws, they are simply obscure.

Before Apple started using pentalobe screw heads, it was hard to find a pentalobe screwdriver. Nowadays, you can get them for very little.

Well, it's just, there are those pentalobe screws of them…

Re: Well, it's just, there are those pentalobe screws of them…

Those screws for which ifixit among others sells screewdrivers for, yeah it was a total leap as the whole story was "some unknown guy said here's a pic of an Apple design". When was the last time that happened? Pictures of rummored parts we see but pictures of rummored designs, well there is the Samsung trial and thats about it.

Still the reg can't take credit for saying it was probably fake, at that point they were just acting as click whores without any integrity. If they thought it was a fake they could have done held back and done some investigating but I guess that would have defeated the point of being a click whore.

Re: Well, it's just, there are those pentalobe screws of them…

"click whores without any integrity."

Hmmm. That could be a nice new slogan for their masthead. Biting the hand that feeds IT is quite old now... You do of course realise that if they're 'click-whores', that makes you a 'click john'. With The Register turning tricks (and degrading themselves) merely for your amusement...

On the other hand, perhaps they're an IT news outfit who (shock horror!) report a variety of IT news and rumour, along with comment, weird stories about Bulgarian airbags and Australians giving blow-jobs while driving. Plus occasionally launching playmonauts into the upper atmosphere or feeding dangerous amounts of saturated fat to innocent Spanish drinkers.

Perhaps you ought to relax, and only click on the stories that meet your high standards of journalism?

I just laughed it off.

I hate replying to myself, but ...

Anybody who has to deal with odd bits of hardware might want one of these:

http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1291529

Not exactly the best steel in the world, but quite handy. Under US$20.00 ... I have had my set for about ten years, and haven't stripped any of the bits (yet), despite using it several times per week. Recommended. (Not affiliated, satisfied user, yadda).

Still, the screw job looks good...

It would be awesome for him if some mfr (manufacturer, that is... heheh) offers him some money for his screw. Might bring in mid-6-figures of he positions them to the right retailers.... (wow, sorry the puns came out that way...)

It possibly says more

Engage smug mode ....

.. but I pointed it out as fake based on the thread, not the head.

It is easy in 3D software to create a helical coil, much harder to create a good sharp helical thread. And although there are machine screws with helical coil threads they are for huge things like machine tools, and not down at the size of a small casing screw.

NOW will you all believe when I say we are ruled by 6 ft lizards in human suits?

More smug-gling ....

One of my mech-e colleagues took one look at this, and we immediately agreed, "Must be fake. They'd never get decent torque with slots that shallow, and it would be trivial to bypass with a flat blade screwdriver."

The screw isn't the story...

it seems most of the early readers did spot the fake (according to the article), but the further from the initial posting, the greater the level of belief. This IS interesting because it shows how rumours spread and become believed. It doesn't matter how dumb the initial hoax is, once it has gone two or three steps, it takes on a aura of credibility.

I watched "Men who stare at goats" again the other day, and this was illustrated perfectly in the justification of why the US got into PSI research - it was because the Russians had got into PSI research, because they believed a fake rumour put out by the French that the Americans were already doing it.... A joke in a movie yes, but how many people watching get the feeling that it could be true? And even worse, how many people think it it true......